A rant...

[ZLTFUL]

So the structure of my new job is I work for a third party who handles desktop support services and software infrastructure and support for a financial services and insurance company.

We report to management there but we work for another company. The company has it's own hardware infrastructure teams. There is a definite divide between us politically as they want us to own 90% of all tech issues/solutions but don't want to tell us which 90%.

My role is administrator for the encryption, antivirus and spyware/malware package. This includes the development, deployment and infrastructure/top level support for said products.
The problem is, we are rolling it out in 2 phases. The encryption project now (which is in test deployment and fine tuning). AV won't be deployed for another 6 months (switching products).

A lot of the interface for the encryption product is via web based portals. I spend most of my day either remoted into a management console on a server or using the web management console from my laptop. The av will be administered in a similar way.

On top of this, the vendor offers no hard copies or digital media copies of its documentation which means all documentation has to be either viewed on the web or downloaded from the web.
They also insisted that I participate in their user forums as it is a good resource to interact with their support staff while helping other customers.

Our work order and project ticketing system is also web based.

Long and short of it, I spend a LOT of time with browsers open. I have a very legitimate reason for it and no one on the team or in the group I work with ever questions it. They don't need to because they're in similar situations.

The only glaring difference is their cubicle orientations place their monitors facing away from the general public. WHile I have my back to the world and anyone and their brother can see what I am doing over my shoulder.

This is mainly because I am mobile...I work from my desk, from my testing area in the basement, in the info security area, or in various conference rooms with management. I also have nothing to hide. I browse news sites while I eat my lunch and check the National Weather Service website now and then if it is stormy out.
I don't browse Facebook(from my phone I do but rarely at work). I don't check out forums. I follow the internet usage policies to a tee.

This is all logged. It is all readily available in my logs as well as my browser history.

Anyway, today, my manager asked me to come with her. We wandered around the bouilding chatting about my project status and discussing other side projects I had taken on to keep me busy during my down time. In short, I had my to do list for the week done in 11.5 hours and was at a standstill on my main project until legal and management made some decisions. SO I was working on a software distribution (a Microsoft security patch that broke PPT 2002 and 2003) and was working on packaging a fix. This is what my morning consisted of and then a status meeting with the PM and followed by policy review with the security folks. Then lunch and finally some changes to my test environment. That was my schedule for the day.

But I digress...back to my meeting with my manager, we finally end up in an empty section behind the mail room and the true reason for the meeting comes out...
Apparently the VP in charge of tech services walked past my desk this morning and sees that I have 2 browsers open...
He assumes that I am browsing the internet. One window is the management console for my test environment and the other is some documentation from the vendor.
Instead of asking me what I am doing he goes to my manager and tells her that I am not doing my job and that I am spending my time browsing the internet.
Shortly after this happens, I notice that some new processes are running on my machine and after checking application and security logs find out that one of the security analysts has backdoored into my system and after browsing several logs, installed monitoring software on my computer.

Needless to say, I was a bit pissed. Not because they caught me doing anything but because I haven't done anything to deserve the distrust.

My manager went to bat for me and explained to the VP that I spent a lot of my time in browsers due to the software THEY purchased.
He still insists that he caught me doing something wrong. ANyway, I haven't done shit wrong. I will continue to not do shit wrong and do my job and be good at it.

Maybe he needs to look to his own employees...the tech lead on my project spends his ENTIRE time in our testing area on his Macbook Pro...which is his personal machine. He also browses constantly forums and websites and the like. Did I mention he comes in at 9am and leave around 3 or 3:30?
And the VP doesn't trust me coming in at 7:30 and leaving at 4:30 because he seems to think I can't do my job without the tech lead...

Anyway, thought the whole deal was shit. Especially considering I have never spoke to or been introduced to the guy but he suddenly seems to know when I am deviating from my job.

/rant

[muskrat]

wow, what a coward that VP is.  As the saying goes, you are promoted to your level of incompetence and he certainly is there.

[IZ]

 
Just looking for ways to get someone in trouble. Seems like they always go for the wrong people.  Douche!   

[RAT900]

This is the kind of asshole who is laying the groundwork for future "blame game" sessions

he is not interested in facts....just positioning for when his crap staff does not hold up their end of the implementations


I can hear it now "We even had to install tracking software on their lead guy's computer because he was web-surfing all day"

Can you pull down the session log history off your computer and have your boss forward it to the VP Asshole in writing and DOCUMENTED?

Also said VP,,,,,, did he have a hand in out-tasking the support your crew provides,,,,,,,,, or did upper management shove this arrangement down his throat

and reduce the number of his personal subjects living in his little empire?


Being a Consultant or 3rd Party has a whole world of relationship dynamics at play....

As a vendor employee, my 30 plus years of experience is that consultants are brought in to "impartially analyze the options" then in actuality rubber stamp or legitimize some in-house guy's wet dream....

then when it goes into epic fail mode it becomes a corporate 3 Stooges Skit.....a slap, gouge and poke festival where the company blames the consultant and the consultant blames the vendor

and then the consultant and company conspire together to blame the vendor

and the vendor ultimately needs to architect and implement the correct approach/solution at great expense or loss to themselves...being blamed the entire time

the consultant then gets a free education on how to do it right

and the company man gets credit for "sorting out a mess made by the vendor and consultant"....

I only have 2 more years or so left of this shit to put up with and I can take the early retirement pension bennies....

and so help me god I am never ever going to look back at this swamp of shit that American Commerce has become....what a cesspool of parasitic worms

[RAT900]

Your post on April 21:

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=48315.msg881019#msg881019


My counsel on April 21:

Congratulations...as they say...... living well, is the best revenge

Enjoy the honeymoon!!!

Maintain tempered expectations....

for eventually you will stumble across the hive of suckage

that this place has currently hidden from your view  




 
   Sorry couldn't resist

[ducpainter]

Your post on April 21:

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=48315.msg881019#msg881019


My counsel on April 21:

Congratulations...as they say...... living well, is the best revenge

Enjoy the honeymoon!!!

Maintain tempered expectations....

for eventually you will stumble across the hive of suckage

that this place has currently hidden from your view 




 
   Sorry couldn't resist

Sometimes there is little reward in being correct.

[RAT900]

Sometimes there is little reward in being correct.

True that....and it does appear the buzzing hive of suckage is on the client side rather than with the people cutting his paycheck

although there can be spillover

[ducpainter]

True that....and it does appear the buzzing hive of suckage is on the client side rather than with the people cutting his paycheck

although there can be spillover

nah...the vp sucks

[il d00d]

Sometimes there is little reward in being correct.

...
I know you weren't trying to pile on Rat, but that is a lonely, sad little endzone dance.   Boo...

The thing about being cynical is that you are never surprised when bad things happen because you are permanently disappointed.  Personally, I would rather deal with surprise than lowered expectations.  My expectations are that some day -but certainly not today- I will work with reasonable, intelligent people that will not attempt to give me the grand tour of the undercarriage of a bus at every opportunity, and that a roiling moat of bullshit will not stand between me and getting stuff done.

ZLTFUL, sorry to hear about the situation - keep your head up, and I hope things improve one way or another...

[ducpainter]

...
I know you weren't trying to pile on Rat, but that is a lonely, sad little endzone dance.   Boo...

The thing about being cynical is that you are never surprised when bad things happen because you are permanently disappointed.  Personally, I would rather deal with surprise than lowered expectations.  My expectations are that some day -but certainly not today- I will work with reasonable, intelligent people that will not attempt to give me the grand tour of the undercarriage of a bus at every opportunity, and that a roiling moat of bullshit will not stand between me and getting stuff done.

ZLTFUL, sorry to hear about the situation - keep your head up, and I hope things improve one way or another...

I'm confused.

Are you calling me or Rat cynical?

[RAT900]

I'm confused.

Are you calling me or Rat cynical?

Does it make any difference? <laughing>

I am not really a cynic by its parochial definition:

cyn·ic  (snk)
n.
1. A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness.
2. A person whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative.
3. Cynic A member of a sect of ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue.


Perhaps more of a skeptic....people can rise above their baser selves but the occurrence of THAT is the surprise if they are left to their own dictates and desires.

The way to circumvent disappointment and stay optimistic about getting something done is based in part on the ability to perform risk mitigation....which involves assessment of involved humans, circumstances, politics, allies, enemies, overt agendas and covert agendas etc etc I lay out everything I can think of that needs to "go right" and the myriad things that can or will go wrong. I get paid for end results, no one approaches the impossible with better humor and determination...I sell people on possibilities...sometimes improbable ones. I figure out fast who will get in the way of success and I don't take pot shots at them, I wait for the kill shot

I never for a minute allow myself to think that in business that I am immortal, invincible or that someone will ever take a bullet for me because I am a great guy.....business is mean...but it is still little more than the grade school playground when it comes to human behavior

the trouble with realistic thinking is that it so often travels in the gray zone separating it from cynicism

Zlt apparently is working for a good company, his manager did not throw him under the bus...the problematic VP if I read this correctly is on the client side...and that can be dangerous as he pays Zlt's company for their services...

[ducpainter]

I think of you more as a realist with experience. 

I'm just another asshole with an opinion.

[duccarlos]

I couldn't read through the whole thing. If work was meant to be fun, it wouldn't be called "work".

[ZLTFUL]

And m'grandpappy used t' say "If you like what you do, you never work a day in your life."

There are 2 sides to every coin so they say.

I just thought it was shit the way it was handled. SO I opened up an individual browser for ever app I work with through a browser in the course of a day...17 browser windows...lets see what the mother make the beast with two backser has to say about them apples.

And yes Rat...you were right...but I expected it to happen once I actually started performing exactly what I was hired to do not before lol.

[Randimus Maximus]

I just thought it was shit the way it was handled. SO I opened up an individual browser for ever app I work with through a browser in the course of a day...17 browser windows...lets see what the mother make the beast with two backser has to say about them apples.

Please tell me you used multiple browsers as well.